Italian Sniper Rifle?

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Posted 08 December 2003 - 03:20 AM by Trigger
I would like to know if Italians used any type of scoped rifle during the war for their marksmen. I've done quite a bit of searching on the internet but have come up with no real information on the subject.

Posted 08 December 2003 - 08:34 AM by JeffreyF
afaik a batch of 100 rifles(?) would be tested and the most accurate one of the bunch would be stamped and sent off for marksmen duty. This is the information in Richard Hobbs(iirc) book on the Carcano. Although from his writing it seems that the marksmen were capable enough that if facing capture they got rid of their rifles and anything identifying them as a marksmen. Don't have the book handy to cooberate sorry.

However during ww1 a scope rifle was issued, so maybe there were some issued in ww2.

"To gain command of the air is to render an enemy harmless." ~ Giulio Douhet

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It is possible, but is this a one-off that was never adopted? An experiment that didn't work? The caption states the picture was in a centennial catalog published on the M91 in 1991.

Page 79 gives a brief discussion stating that some of the WW1 M91s with the scope were issued in Albania in April 1941 to the GaF. It also states that some M91/41 were equipped with scopes and used in Russia and Yugoslavia by both the RE and the RSI. I will check my GaF book to see if this is mentioned. The article states that the alpini Tagliamento was issued some of these rifles.

It also states that there aren't any documents stating that the M91/38 version was ever used at the front.

My concern is that all this is based on a personal account (fn 15) and no other sources are provided.